Terms of Service

Last Modified: November 24, 2025

Acceptance of the Terms of Use

These terms of service are entered into by and between you and the National Violence Prevention Hotline (“NVPH,” “we,” or “us”). The following terms and conditions, together with any documents they expressly incorporate by reference (collectively, “Terms of Service” or “Terms”), govern your access to and use of the violencepreventionhotline.org website (the “Website”), including any content, functionality and services offered on or through violencepreventionhotline.org including without limitation the chat feature, as well as your access to and use of NVPH’s phone-based hotline and its associated voicemail (the “Hotline”) (collectively with the Website, the “Services”).

Please read the Terms carefully. By using the Services, or by clicking to accept or agree to the Terms when this option is made available to you, you accept and agree to be bound and abide by these Terms. If you do not want to agree to these Terms, you must not access or use the Services.

By using the Services, you represent and warrant that you are of legal age to form a binding contract with NVPH.

NVPH is located in the United States, and we do not direct our Services to anyone outside the United States.

Changes to the Terms of Service

We may revise and update these Terms from time to time in our sole discretion. All changes are effective immediately when we post them.

Your continued use of the Services following the posting of revised Terms means that you accept and agree to the changes. You are expected to check this page each time you access the Services so you are aware of any changes, as they are binding on you.

Our Services

NVPH was set up to help those experiencing thoughts of violence. We provide opportunities to share what you’re going through, receive support, get connected to resources, and create a plan to stay safe. We are here to help those worried about themselves or another person. We also provide support to victims and survivors of violence. To use and benefit from NVPH’s Services, you are required to comply with these Terms in their entirety.

We do not charge fees for your use of the Services. However, you may incur charges related to third party services, such as charges related to (without limitation): your phone usage and bill; emergency services; outside referrals or services that you choose to utilize; Medicaid or other insurance programs.

Your privacy is important to us, and we endeavor to maintain confidentiality when it is legal and safe to do so. NVPH is not a mental healthcare treatment or provider, and our counselors do not provide professional healthcare. Your use of the Services does not give rise to the legal obligations of confidentiality that may be associated with professional healthcare providers. For information about how we use and protect information that we obtain from you, please see our Privacy Policy.

Accessing the Services

We reserve the right to withdraw or amend this Website and the other Services, and any service or material provided therein, in our sole discretion without notice. We will not be liable if for any reason all or any part of the Services are unavailable at any time or for any period.

You are responsible for both:

Making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to the Services; and
Ensuring that all persons who access the Services through your internet connection or equipment are aware of these Terms and comply with them.

To access the Services or some of the resources they offer, you may be asked to provide certain information. It is a condition of your use of the Services that the information you provide is correct. All information you provide to use the Services is governed by our Privacy Policy, and you consent to all actions we take with respect to your information consistent with our Privacy Policy.

Intellectual Property Rights

The Website and its entire contents, features and functionality (including but not limited to all information, software, text, displays, images, video and audio, and the design, selection and arrangement thereof), are owned by NVPH, its licensors or other providers of such material and are protected by United States and international copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret and other intellectual property or proprietary rights laws.

These Terms permit you to use the Website for your personal, non-commercial use only. You must not reproduce, distribute, modify, create derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, republish, download, store or transmit any of the material on our Website, except as follows:

Your computer may temporarily store copies of such materials in RAM incidental to your accessing and viewing those materials.
You may store files that are automatically cached by your Web browser for display enhancement purposes.
You may print one copy of a reasonable number of pages of the Website for your own personal, non-commercial use and not for further reproduction, publication or distribution.

You agree not to:

Modify copies of any materials from this site.
Use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from the accompanying text.
Delete or alter any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notices from copies of materials from this site.

You further agree not to access or use for any commercial purposes any part of the Website or other Services, or any materials available therefrom.

If you print, copy, modify, download or otherwise use or provide any other person with access to any part of the Website in breach of the Terms, your right to use the Website will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made. No right, title or interest in or to the Website or any content on the Website is transferred to you, and all rights not expressly granted are reserved by NVPH. Any use of the Website not expressly permitted by these Terms is a breach of these Terms and may violate copyright, trademark and other laws.

Trademarks

The name National Violence Prevention Hotline, the terms NVPH and Violence Prevention Hotline, NVPH logo and all related names, logos, product and service names, designs and slogans are trademarks of NVPH or its affiliates or licensors. The use of such marks without the prior written permission of NVPH is prohibited. All other names, logos, product and service names, designs and slogans on this Website are the trademarks of their respective owners.

Prohibited Uses

You may use the Website and the Services only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms. You agree not to use the Services:

In any way that violates any federal, state, local or international law or regulation. Some of the behaviors below constitute crimes, and may result in NVPH terminating your access to the Services, and/or contacting law enforcement.
For the purpose of exploiting, harming or attempting to exploit or harm minors in any way by exposing them to inappropriate content, asking for personally identifiable information or otherwise.
To spam the lines by generating multiple or non-authentic calls, texts, or chats, or procure the sending of any advertising or promotional material, including any junk mail, chain letter, spam, or any other similar materials or solicitations.
To harass or threaten any counselors, employees, volunteers, agents, associates, or other users of NVPH, or to send or transmit sexually explicit, or gratuitously graphic, gory, or violent content through the Services.
To connect with counselors, employees, volunteers, agents, or associates of NVPH outside of your use of the Services. Thus, you agree not to search for personal information for the aforementioned individuals, such as their full names, addresses, locations, photographs, phone numbers, family, friends, social media accounts, or other personal information. You also agree not to share any personal information about a counselor, employee, volunteer, agent, or associate of NVPH with others or on any public platform.
To impersonate NVPH or one of its counselors, employees, volunteers, agents or associates, including another user or any other person or entity (including, without limitation, by using e-mail addresses associated with any of the foregoing).
To engage in swatting, doxxing, or other hoax behavior, including efforts to have law enforcement dispatched to another person’s address or location with awareness that no credible emergency exists.
To videotape or otherwise record conversations with any NVPH counselor, employee, volunteer, agent, or associate, regardless of whether your intent is to keep such recording private or to share it on a public platform or social media.
To engage in any other conduct that restricts or inhibits anyone’s use of the Services, or which, as determined by us in our sole discretion, may harm NVPH or users of the Services, or expose them to liability.

Additionally, you agree not to:

Use the Services in any manner that could disable, overburden, damage, or impair the site or interfere with any other party’s use of the Services, including their ability to engage in real time activities through the Services.
Use any robot, spider or other automatic device, process or means to access the Website for any purpose, including monitoring or copying any of the material on the Website.
Use any manual process to monitor or copy any of the material on the Website or Hotline, or for any other purpose not expressly authorized in these Terms, without NVPH’s prior written consent.
Use any device, software or routine that interferes with the proper working of the Services.
Introduce any viruses, trojan horses, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful.
Attempt to gain unauthorized access to, interfere with, damage or disrupt any parts of the Services, the server on which the Website is stored, or any server, computer or database connected to the Website.
Attack the Website via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack.
Otherwise attempt to interfere with the proper functioning of the Services.

Monitoring and Enforcement; Termination

We have the right to:

Take appropriate legal action, including without limitation, referral to law enforcement, for any illegal or unauthorized use of the Services.
Share information as needed to comply with applicable law or law enforcement process, or to protect the health or safety of any person, in our sole discretion as further outlined in our Privacy Policy.
Terminate or suspend your access to all or part of the Services, including without limitation for any violation of these Terms.

You waive and hold harmless NVPH from any claims resulting from: any action taken by NVPH during or as a result of law enforcement or governmental investigations; any actions taken as a consequence of investigations by either NVPH or law enforcement authorities; and any actions taken or disclosure made to protect the health or safety of any person.

We assume no liability for any action or inaction regarding transmissions, communications or content provided by any user or third party. We have no liability or responsibility to anyone for performance or nonperformance of the activities described in this section.

Reliance on Information Posted or Provided

This Website or the Services may include, reference, provide, or link content supplied by third parties. Information from third parties presented on or through the Website or other Services is made available for general information purposes. NVPH counselors may also provide information through the Hotline. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of this information. Any reliance you place on such information is strictly at your own risk. We disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such materials or information by you or any user of the Services, or by anyone who may be informed of any of the contents.

All statements and/or opinions expressed in third party materials, and all articles and responses to questions and other content, other than the content provided by NVPH, are solely the opinions and the responsibility of the person or entity providing those materials. The materials do not necessarily reflect the opinions of NVPH. We are not responsible, or liable to you or any third party, for the content or accuracy of any materials provided by any third parties.

Changes to the Website

We may update the content on this Website from time to time, but its content is not necessarily complete or up-to-date. Any of the material on the Website may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update such material.

Information About You and Your Visits to the Website

All information we collect on this Website is subject to our Privacy Policy. By using the Website, you consent to all actions taken by us with respect to your information in compliance with the Privacy Policy.

Linking to the Website

You may link to our homepage, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it, but you must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part.

This Website may provide certain social media features that enable you to:

Link from your own or certain third-party websites to certain content on this Website.
Send e-mails or other communications with certain content, or links to certain content, on this Website.
Cause limited portions of content on this Website to be displayed or appear to be displayed on your own or certain third-party websites.

You may use these features solely as they are provided by us and solely with respect to the content they are displayed with. Subject to the foregoing, you must not:

Establish a link from any website that is not owned by you.
Cause the Website or portions of it to be displayed, or appear to be displayed by, for example, framing, deep linking or in-line linking, on any other site.
Link to any part of the Website other than the homepage.
Otherwise take any action with respect to the materials on this Website that is inconsistent with any other provision of these Terms of Service.

You agree to cooperate with us in causing any unauthorized framing or linking immediately to cease. We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.

We may disable all or any social media features and any links at any time without notice in our discretion.

Links from the Services

If the Website or other Services contain or provide links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your convenience only. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them. If you decide to access any of the third party websites linked to this Website or provided through NVPH’s Services, you do so entirely at your own risk and subject to the terms and conditions of use for such websites.

Geographic Restrictions

The owner of the Website and Services is based in the State of Michigan in the United States. We provide this Website and the Services for use only by persons located in the United States.We make no claims that the Website, any of its content, or the Services are accessible or appropriate outside of the United States. Access to the Website or Services may not be legal by certain persons or in certain countries. If you access the Website or Services from outside the United States, you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws.

Disclaimer of Warranties

You understand that we cannot and do not guarantee or warrant that files available for downloading from the internet or the Website will be free of viruses or other destructive code. You are responsible for implementing sufficient procedures and checkpoints to satisfy your particular requirements for anti-virus protection and accuracy of data input and output, and for maintaining a means external to our site for any reconstruction of any lost data. We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial-of-service attack, viruses or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of the Website or the Services or to your downloading of any material posted on the Website, or any Website linked to it or through the Services.

Your use of the Services and their content is at your own risk. The Website and other Services (including oral information provided through the Hotline) are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, without any warranties of any kind, either express or implied. Neither NVPH nor any person associated with NVPH makes any warranty or representation with respect to the completeness, security, reliability, quality, accuracy or availability of the Website or other Services or information provided through the Website or other Services. Without limiting the foregoing, neither NVPH nor anyone associated with NVPH represents or warrants that the Website or the other Services will be accurate, reliable, error-free or uninterrupted, that defects will be corrected, that our site or the server that makes it available are free of viruses or other harmful components or that the Website or the Services will otherwise meet your needs or expectations.

NVPH hereby disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, statutory or otherwise, including but not limited to any warranties of merchantability, non-infringement and fitness for particular purpose.

The foregoing does not affect any warranties which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

Limitation on Liability

To the fullest extent consistent with applicable law, NVPH, its affiliates, and their collective licensors, service providers, employees, volunteers, agents, officers, and directors shall not be liable for damages of any kind, under any legal theory, arising out of or in connection with your use, or inability to use, the Services, any linked or referenced websites, any content on the Website or such other websites or any services or items obtained through the Website or such other websites. Without limiting the above, NVPH is not liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential or punitive damages, including but not limited to, personal injury, pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of revenue, loss of profits, loss of business or anticipated savings, loss of use, loss of goodwill, loss of data, related to use or non-use of the Services, and whether caused by tort (including negligence), breach of contract or otherwise, even if foreseeable.

NVPH is not responsible for decisions you or others make, or actions you or others take or do not take, while you are using the Services or as a result of your doing so, including but not limited to decisions about commencing or continuing mental health care or other supportive services, treatments, or medications.

The foregoing does not affect any liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless NVPH, its affiliates, licensors and service providers, and its and their respective officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, licensors, suppliers, successors and assigns from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, expenses or fees (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or relating to your use of the Services or your violation of these Terms.

Governing Law and Jurisdiction

All matters relating to the Services and these Terms of Use, and any dispute or claim arising therefrom or related thereto (in each case, including non-contractual disputes or claims), shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the internal laws of the State of Michigan without giving effect to any choice or conflict of law provision or rule (whether of the State of Michigan or any other jurisdiction).

Any legal suit, action or proceeding arising out of, or related to, these Terms or the Services shall be instituted exclusively in the federal courts of the United States or the courts of the State of Michigan although we retain the right to bring any suit, action or proceeding against you for breach of these Terms in your country of residence or any other relevant country. You waive any and all objections to the exercise of jurisdiction over you by such courts and to venue in such courts.

Arbitration

At NVPH’s sole discretion, we may require you to submit any disputes arising from these Terms or use of the Services, including disputes arising from or concerning the Terms’ interpretation, violation, invalidity, non-performance, or termination, to final and binding arbitration under the Rules of Arbitration of the American Arbitration Association applying Michigan law.

Waiver and Severability

No waiver by NVPH of any term or condition set forth in these Terms shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or condition or a waiver of any other term or condition, and any failure of NVPH to assert a right or provision under these Terms shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

If any provision of these Terms is held by a court or other tribunal of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable for any reason, such provision shall be eliminated or limited to the minimum extent such that the remaining provisions of the Terms will continue in full force and effect.

Entire Agreement

These Terms and our Privacy Policy constitute the sole and entire agreement between you and NVPH with respect to the Services, and supersede all prior and contemporaneous understandings, agreements, representations and warranties, both written and oral, with respect to the Website and Services.

Your Comments and Concerns

This website is operated by National Violence Prevention Hotline.

All feedback, comments, requests for technical support and other communications relating to the Website or the Services should be directed to: [email protected].